


The Shower

by iluvaqt



Series: His Best Girl [5]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, F/M, Nudity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-07
Updated: 2015-06-07
Packaged: 2018-04-03 07:18:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4092031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iluvaqt/pseuds/iluvaqt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an awkward bathroom mishap, witnessed by well-meaning interlopers, Steve and Felicity talk expectations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Shower

[ ](http://s13.photobucket.com/user/micki34/media/Banners/IMG_74391.jpg.html)

::: ::: :::

Tony was the smartest man she'd ever met, her father included. Granted she had only been six when he left, but she'd seen his inventions, his experiments and she liked to think she understood brilliance when she saw it. Like Tony, her father had built a supercomputer before middle school. So yes, she was a little in awe of his skills and genius, but the man didn't have a humble bone in his body. Sure all his friends told her that he'd had his ego dialed down in recent years, but he was still incapable of not boasting or grandstanding. So while she admired Tony for his ingenuity and bravery - he wasn't afraid of failure, at least not on a scientific or technological level - she could only tolerate being around him in small doses. Keeping up with him was mentally and physically exhausting. The man was like the Energizer bunny, and he didn't even have a mini-ARC reactor in his chest anymore.

Another installation down and she was home free. Clean energy was the way of the future and where popular America were still clinging to nuclear energy, many other countries weren't and were eager and ready to pay Stark Industries top dollar for their design and systems. She wasn't an engineer or a physicist but she new her science and she knew how to build secure systems. And Tony didn't want anyone else working with him or his team in handing over his baby (the newly improved ARC Reactor) to their buyers, but her.

When they'd first met, Tony had been distant and suspicious of her. Pepper thought it was curious and odd considering Tony had never been suspicious of any woman before. Bruce had suggested it was because she was dating Cap and Tony was protective of Cap. Which was laughable in itself since no one ribbed Steve more than Tony. Tony later admitted it was because he had misjudged and been totally blindsided by Natasha (a mistake he lived to tell about, many others couldn't call themselves so fortunate) and under appreciated Pepper for so many years, that he decided he'd take a page from Rodey's playbook and actually treat women as more than just decoration or play things. Having Pepper in his life and working with Maria and Natasha was certainly helping him with that self improvement. 

Felicity was important to Steve. He didn't want to do anything to screw that up. He thought she was very clever, young, kind and beautiful. It was a rare combination. He had a reputation of screwing up relationships. His circle of genuine friends was very small and he had abused those friendships a lot over time, his non platonic track record was case in point, Tony didn't want to risk running her off so he'd kept to himself, until one day he caught her conversing with JARVIS and suggesting coding upgrades and he just couldn't uninvolved himself any longer. 

So they were back from another week long trip, this time from Amsterdam and she was too tired to go home. Happy had offered to drive her but she was another 30-minute drive, with no traffic, from the Avengers tower across the city. If Steve was out and she couldn't ask him if she could crash in his room, she'd take the sofa, she was that desperate for a hot shower and sleep.

The team rooms were still being finished, the plumbing fitted, so there was only Tony and Pepper's private bathroom and a communal bathroom available. There wasn't a lock on the door but the glass frosted when the room was in use. Considering Bruce was in the lab and looked to be occupied for the next hour at least, she told Tony she was going to take a shower. He waved her off, absorbed in the reports Maria had sent over on the latest HYDRA Intel they had gathered.

Felicity dropped her overnight case on the vanity and took out a comfortable pair of leggings, a soft sweater and a clean change of underwear from her suitcase before turning the shower on and stepping under the spray. The water pressure was just right and the large shower head drenched her from head to toe in seconds.

She was done with her hair and had soaped up her body when she felt the shower door open. She didn't even register who it might be, it was purely an impulse reaction. She screamed, loudly and flailed, throwing her sudsy loofah into her intruder's face.

::: ::: :::

Steve was tired. He and Sam had just gotten back from another dead end. He thought for sure this time he had caught up to Bucky. The trip back from Montreal was a long one, going over every piece of information they had gathered from witnesses and video footage, Maria had sweet talked out of the local traffic department liaison to help in their investigation. Bucky had been there a month. The longest he'd been anywhere. It was the last place Steve knew to look going over all the places they'd ever talked about visiting when the war was over.

He hadn't been sleeping well since losing Bucky again. Never more than a couple hours at a time. Sure his body was a super machine but he need his brain to switch off. It was hard to find peace these days. He only really felt rested, his mind slowing, the worry and guilt easing when he was around her. The thought of Felicity brought a smile to his face. Holding her, her face pressed against his chest, her arms around his waist, he found himself closing his eyes and often he slept without even realizing it. She never woke him, or complained of being uncomfortable. And when he opened his eyes, she would never fail to give him a smile that chased away the chill that tried to lay claim to his heart. 

He wondered if it was too late to ride over and visit her. She was due back from her business trip today. It was only six. He could pick up dinner on the way and surprise her. That thought in mind, he grabbed a towel and his shaving kit and headed for the communal bathroom. 

Being in barracks and stationed all over Europe, he was used to using whatever was available. He'd made do with a basin and a washcloth for months in some circumstances. He dropped his things on the sink counter and he didn't even register that the shower was already running until he was confronted with a naked screaming Felicity.

Her expression, not to mention her body which was now permanently emblazoned in his brain, momentarily immobilized him but a loofah to the face promptly sprung him into action. With a sincere and profuse apology, he spun on his heel, his foot finding a wet patch on the floor and caught the back of his head on the corner of the shower frame, knocking himself out cold.

Bruce heard Felicity scream, and considering it sounded like she'd been startled senseless, he ran straight down the hall from the lab and into the bathroom. 

Not sure what he feared, either a security breech, an enormous spider or a rat, what he found instead was a naked Steve passed out on the floor and an equally naked Felicity, dripping wet, crouched over him.

Bruce promptly did an about face, with a garbled apology only to collide with Tony who'd also come to investigate.

By this time Steve was already coming around. He noticed Felicity trying to check him over, still naked and saw the two framing the door, holding each other up.

"Get out!" he barked at them. Grabbing his towel off the floor, he shielded her body and glared at the two still bug-eyed outside the door.

Tony, never one to obey any orders, remained where he was and smirked. "Nice work, Cap. I thought she could do with a little TLC. Nice welcome home there."

"Stark," Steve growled in warning.

"Got it, no sharing. Come on, Banner. Show's over." The pair finally moved out of view and closed the door.

Felicity, while embarrassed she'd flashed everyone, was more concerned about the bump on the back of Steve's head. It was already welling up to be half an egg size. "We need some ice on this."

Steve gently pried her hand away and urged her back. "Finish up your shower, I'll get some ice from the kitchen."

"But Steve you shouldn't go walking around, you could have a concussion and..."

He blew out a long breath and gave her a look she couldn't interpret. "I heal fast, Felicity, it's fine. I've got it. Finish up."

::: ::: :::

Steve knew he should be sitting down with at the very least a bag of peas against the throbbing bump on the back of his head but he couldn't sit still. So he'd spent the last twenty minutes beating the sand out of the boxing bags in the gym. It wasn't anything unusual for him. Tony kept lots of duct tape around and plenty of bags. It was just a shame he'd burst every single bag in the gym and he didn't have the care to repair any of them yet. They'd served their purpose though. Now he was feeling a little physically spent to match his mental fatigue. And he was even in more need of a shower than before.

He couldn't get the image of her out if his head. Just picturing her made his temper flare again and made his face hot.

He wasn't that guy. He didn't jerk off to magazines or watch porn but he had seen his fair share of female forms. Being Captain America drew a certain kind of attention. Men wanted to be him and woman wanted to bed him. He had been weak. He had been unused to that kind of attention and he had thought at the time that it was nice to be noticed, to be desired. But he learned pretty quickly why his mother had always frowned at the girls that hung off Bucky's arms when he occasionally brought his latest dates around to take him out on the town. Those women didn't want to know Steve from Brooklyn that only had one good suit and two pairs of shoes to his name, that had been sickly, at the doctors so often that they knew all his statistics and patient history by heart. They didn't want to know the man who had been so lost after his mother died that he'd taken to lying on papers in a desperate attempt to get passed so he could make something of himself. Join the cause, defend his country and find meaning for his dead-end life.

Felicity wasn't one of those shallow girls who only wanted a good time. Or were simply there to be told they're pretty, to be spoiled with gifts and adorn the arm of the richest or most popular man in the room. 

He felt sick that his mind kept drifting back to her again and again. The way her wet hair was darker and clung to her shoulders and the tops of her breasts. He buried his face in his hands and his mind took him back, showing him everything in fine detail, the water droplets that trailed down her body, the steam still rising from her freshly showered skin. Her shapely perfect curves, her rounded hips, child-bearing hips his brain helpfully supplied. And his groin twitched at the thought of her rounded and swollen with his child. He wracked a hand through his hair, tugging at the ends and wincing when the tender area protested his abuse.

A tentative, gentle hand caressed his shoulder and he looked up, knowing without looking that she was there.

"You weren't in the kitchen," she said softly, her voice uneven and her eyes suspiciously moist. "Talk to me, Steve."

He gulped, trying to work through the lump lodged in his throat. "You're a good girl, a good woman, Felicity. I... I want to treat you right. I'm trying... I always thought that..."

Felicity blushed, reading between the lines of what he was saying. "Does it suck that those two barged in on us? Yes. Am I upset that you saw me naked? Are you kidding? I wish I had your old school charm and propriety, but I've been picturing you naked probably since the day we met," she sighed. "It's kinda impossible to put Pandora back in the box once you've opened it. I'm no paragon of virtue, Steve. There haven't been many but I'm not a virgin."

Steve grabbed her hands in his and squeezed them looking deep into her eyes. "Neither am I. It would be completely hypocritical of me to expect you to be. Not that it wouldn't be a gift and an honor, if you were," he said touching his forehead to hers. "I guess I was just feeling guilty because I promised myself that the next time I was with someone or did anything intimate, it would be with someone special. And it would mean something. It would be consensual and planned..."

"And not an accidental tussle in the shower in which no one has any gratification?" she teased lightly, a smile threatening the corners of her mouth.

"Come here, darlin'," he growled playfully. He pulled her into his lap and kissed her, teasing her bottom lip with his teeth until she pressed against him more firmly and opened her mouth. "I love you," he said finally when he broke their kiss, pressing his nose to her cheek.

Felicity threaded her fingers through the fine silken strands of his hair and cradled his head. "I love you too, you big idiot. Don't ever disappear and mope on me again. A girl could get a complex."

Steve grinned against her throat as he peppered her skin with soft kisses. "Yes, ma'am."


End file.
